


In Which Jade does Science and Everyone Else Makes an Interesting Discovery

by NevillesGran



Series: Project SSCAIA [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Bec wants grandpups, Medical Experimentation, Multi, Project: SSCAIA, Supernatural AU - Freeform, it's mostly about those first five characters, okay strongly hinted at, the others just have a couple lines, the ships are only hinted at really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2794232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevillesGran/pseuds/NevillesGran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You really like your job in SSCAIA. Combining magic and technology has been a hobby of your since you learned how to use a screwdriver and write a rune. The fact that this is exactly the sort of place you've spent half your life carefully keeping Bec a secret from is…not important, because these subjects are all monsters. Not like your dog!</p><p>You still haven't told anyone about him though. Not anything that would suggest he isn't a perfectly ordinary dog, living with John's father while you all bunk at this secret research facility. And there's no reason for that to change!</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Jade does Science and Everyone Else Makes an Interesting Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This is like half again as long as I thought it'd be, and at least five times as shippy. Sorry not sorry.

You sort of love your job. You loved researching the supernatural and inventing things on your island, too, but you’ll be the first to say that you’re really glad you got hired for the SSCAIA project. Studying (more) magical creatures up close! Working with other people, other trained scientists who believe in both Mendeleev AND Merlin! Getting paid, basically, to to work on your hobby of combining magic and technology, in ways you never would have THOUGHT of without help! It’s pretty much the coolest thing you’ve ever done.

Admittedly, some parts of it might not be the most morally upright. But all your subjects are…okay, not really volunteers, but they’ve all killed humans at some point, and so would be hunted anyway if they weren’t here.

“All right, Tavros!” You check his receiver headband one last time, making sure it’s secure to his skin. It won’t do you any good if it falls off when he shrinks! “Can you feel anything yet?”

“Um, no?” He glances around nervously, gaze landing on the computer equipment. “Should I? It looks, um, off.”

“It is!” you exclaim, bucktoothed smile wide. You wink mischievously and pat him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’m just getting default measurements. Any complaints?”

He tips his head from side to side, eyes rolling up to look at the headband. “No? It feels like pretty much, uh, a normal piece of headgear.”

“Let’s see what we can do about that!” you declare, march over to your computer and pull up the program. You also start the video recorder, and make sure everyone on the other side of the glass is getting full volume relay, too. Roxy and Jane are there because they helped with this project, and Dave is watching because he’s a protective worrywart with nothing else to do right now. You’re the only one in the Test Lab—aside from Tavros, obviously. The subject.

“May 5th, 10:14 AM,” you say, all business now that the science has really begun. “First test of the Shapeshift Induction Pulse, administered via radial relay from computer to receiver on the patient’s forehead. Receiver is attached via the constricting-expanding band previously used for this patient.” A glance around assures you that all the usual measuring equipment is ready and on. You turn away from the microphone. “Tavros, can you give me a voluntary change, to get a baseline for today?”

“Sure.” Without another word, the space occupied by a tall young man is overfilled by a large brown bull—his favorite morph. The bull has has a silver headband nestled around the base of his horns, which doesn’t move when he shakes his head. He’s often disturbed by unfamiliar articles of clothing when he first changes; he can’t bring them with him.

You check the various growing electronic graphs and find all measurements normal for a morph—hormone shifts, energy spike, etc. “All right, back to human.”

The bull stomps one hoof and suddenly he’s Tavros again, stretching his left arm.

“Okay, we’re going to do it now,” you say. Your mouse hovers over the Go button. “Remember, don’t change if anything hurts, or gives any other sensation, just tell me. We’re looking for an involuntary trigger, not a torturous inducement.” If you can trigger a morphic shift, you’ll be one step closer to replicating the ability in ordinary humans, and how cool would THAT be?!

His stutter betrays his confident nod. “G-got it.”

You shoot him a reassuring smile, and hit the button.

There’s a bull in the middle of the room again, flicking his tail and tossing his head in distress. All right, that’s pretty justified, it’s probably like having your leg shoot out when someone hits the right nerve cluster under the patella—but, like, much moreso. You can see how that would be distressing. His clothes are gone, though, so that banishment must be part of the reflexive process—you’d wondered about that. You wonder if he defaulted to his more regular/favorite animal shape, or just the one he’d most recently taken other than human? You’ll have to do more tests to determine that. You wonder if you can control what he becomes…but that would probably take much more precise control of the signal…

Also? Hell. Fuckin’. _Yes_.

“Trial 1 is a success!” You turn around to share a fist pump of victory and pretend through-the-glass high five with Roxy, a grin with Jane and a cool thumbs up with Dave.

“All right, Tavros, you can turn back now!” You half-shout in delight as you spin back to your experiment and why shouldn’t you? You and your team are the best maginventors! It is you!

Tavros remains a bull, still tossing his head as if looking for an escape. His posture doesn’t look like he’s going to charge anything, but he’s pawing the ground hard enough to make a scraping noise on the tile.

You bite your lip. “Tavros? Can you understand me?” You check the SIP program—yes, it’s stopped broadcasting. All the monitoring equipment suggests his vitals are normal, for a young adult bull. The thaumameter isn’t registering anything odd, nor is the multimeter. The oscilloscope…

“Shit, the signal is still bouncing around. He must not be able to change back.”

You jump a little, nearly elbowing Roxy in the stomach as she peers over your shoulder. You didn’t even hear her come in. She is the _ninja_ est _._

You glance over your shoulder at your subject. Oh shit, he’s turning in your direction, and lowering his head. The tiles are getting _really_ scraped up. “And getting more bull-like as the minute! Roxy, move!”

You pull her sideways, waving your other arm. “Hey, Tavros! Over here!” Away from the beloved, expensive computer equipment, thank you!

Dave’s in the room by now, too, and he gets the idea. “Toro, toro, olé!” he calls, in an actually pretty passable spanish accent. Well, he did grow up in Texas. Partly.

“Don’t draw your sword, Dave!” you say. “We just need to get the receiver off his head, and he should calm down.”

“Got it.” He waves one red-sleeved arm and sidles sideways, away from you, Roxy, and all the computer stuff. “Olé!”

Tavros turns his head to follow him.

“Should I go for back-up?” Jane asks from the doorway. She doesn’t have any combat training like the rest of you.

“We’re good!” Roxy waves at the metal anklet hanging grimly on just above Tavros’s back right hoof. “Hal can always zap ‘im if he gets too feisty.”

“As a last resort,” you say firmly. He hasn’t actually charged anyone yet, though the longer you wait the more likely it looks. He keeps turning to keep an eye on both you and Dave. His snorting sounds more panicked than angry, but that might not matter.

You can use that. The problem is that the waves that triggered his shift are still bouncing around the room, off the walls and into the receiver on his head. Between the three of you, you can probably get the headband off, but it might be easier to just get him out of the room!

“Jane, back away! Like, really far away! I’m going to try to get him out of range!” Tavros turn to stare at your as you push past Roxy to the door, and you encourage him. “Here, boy! Here, Tavros! Good bull!”

Okay, so you really only know how to call dogs.

Roxy gets the new plan at once. She stops moving and scans the room. “Go left, Janey!”

You glance at the hallway behind you and yeah, she’s totally right, there’s just a wall across from this room and if Tavros charges from where he is, he’ll hit it at an angle that will incline him to turn right. Which means, unfortunately, that _you_ should go that way, to make sure he gets far enough to duck what is apparently not so much a shift-trigger as a homimorph inhibitor. Whoops!

You jump up and down when you reach the doorway, waving your arms over your head. “Here, Tavros! Come! Come on!” You jump once more for emphasis.

Tavros lowers his head, stomps his foot one last time, lets out a deep bellow, and _charges._

Oh holy shit you have made a mistake.

There’s about seven feet of space between you and the bull when he starts moving, enough for you to spin on one heel and sprint into the corridor, pushing off the doorframe to execute a neat turn to the right. Half a second later, you can hear Tavros’s thundering hoofbeats right behind you. Why did you think this was a good solution to your problems, seriously, why, you are about to be gored and stampeded in one swift—

There’s a flash of green light and a familiar furry weight lands on your back, knocking you flat on your face. Before you even land, there’s a sharp bark, another green flash, and the hoofbeats vanish, taking with them the smell of animal sweat—well, bovine sweat—and the general impression of a 1000kg hulk at your heels.

Of course, it has been replaced by a 55kg bulk smelling of damp dog—oh no, has he been in the pond again?

“Bad dog!” From years of experience, you know how to wiggle around until you’re on your back looking up at him. You smack him gently on the nose. “Bad Bec, no pond! And no visiting me at work, remember? We went _over_ this. You’re supposed to be with John’s dad! What will he think? What will everyone here…?”

Oh, yes. Everyone here.

Bec is doing his best to wash your face, but you look past him to the three curious faces staring at you from down the hall. Well, two curious faces—Dave met Bec years ago. He strolls over, grabs his collar and pulls him away. Bec whines but lets him.

“You okay, Harley?” You can’t see his eyes behind his shades, but his head tilts a little as he looks you over for scrapes or broken bones.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Dave lets go of Bec’s collar when you climb to your feet. He leans against the wall and folds his arms, deliberately a neutral party as you watch Roxy and Jane for reactions. Bec stands at your side, tongue lolling friendlily, and tries to lick your fingers as you twine them in his thick, coarse, white fur.

Roxy looks intrigued and excited. Jane looks wary. Dirk has arrived as well—you’d bet dollars to donuts the AR called him as soon as Tavros started acting out—and he’s as inscrutable as ever. Nepeta is peering around his shoulder, eyes wide, hackles slightly raised, which means Equius is probably going to trot down the corridor within the next minute. Right, they were helping Dirk with the robots this morning.

It’s not that you don’t trust your coworkers. John and Dave are already “out”, after all, and nobody made a fuss—well, Rose sort of reamed everyone, but that was also for nearly letting the escape attempt work. Everyone found out about the Auto-Responder, which raised more trouble, but mostly because it’s sort of creepy and also a jerk.

But you’ve spent a really long time keeping Bec secret from the world, primarily for fear that he’d end up in a place exactly like this.

Not that you could exactly _blame_ them. You’re here, aren’t you?

But he’s _your dog._

The silence only lasts a like two seconds, of course. Your mind is just racing.

“Hey, this must be Bec!” Roxy exclaims, walking forward with one hand out. She glances up at you. “Can I say hi?”

“Sure!” you say brightly. You pull your fingers gently out of Bec’s fur and run your hand down his back. “Bec, greet friend! This is Roxy.”

“Hey,” she says, and kneels down to let him sniff her hand on the same level. He obliges, and licks it for good measure. “Wow, you’re a beaut. So, uh, you teleport, huh?”

She’s still looking at Bec, scratching his ruff now, but it’s obvious where the question is addressed.

You jut your chin bravely forward. “Yes, this is my dog, Bec. He can travel instantaneously through space—really instantaneously, believe me, we’ve tested it with atomic clocks. And he can send other beings and objects the same way. He sort of raised me after my grandfather died, when I was six.”

Jane’s mouth opens in a soft, sad “oh,” and Nepeta’s eyes grow even wider. Predictably, Equius trots up behind her, hooves clattering, and she puts a hand over his mouth before he can ask something haughty.

“You can all greet him, if you’d like,” you offer. Roxy smiles up at you encouragingly—she’s moved on to scratching behind his ears now, without getting up. You can’t not smile back at someone who likes animals so much.

Jane comes forward, trailing a cautious Nepeta and Equius, but Dirk hangs back. “I was actually called about a mad bull?”

“Yeah, we really should figure out where he sent Tavros,” Dave adds. Now that the action appears to be over, he’s resumed his habitual slouch.

“Oh gosh!” You kneel next to Bec, pushing Roxy and the others away for a moment so you can grab his head and make him look at you. “Bec, bring the bull back! Fetch him back!”

He perks up at the key word “fetch” but nothing else happens. You sigh. In for the cruiser, in for the battleship, as Grandpa used to say.

“All right boy, space-witch time! Get the headband, let’s witch!”

There’s barely time for everyone (but Dave) to look at you like you’re nuts before Bec’s tongue lolls out in a doggy smile and a headband with white-furred dog ears appears in your hair with a flash of green light. Because you’ve practiced this a lot, it pushes your hair neatly back from your face. It also, through the homemade magitech in the ears, connects you telepathically with Bec.

It never stops being exciting. Colors are duller but everything smells so bright and clear, you hardly need to see. (You understood Terezi from the first time you met.) This place is dull, sterile, science, sorcery, stink of scared bull, but it can’t hide all the people. People! There’s you, Jade, bright chemicals metals pup-mistress-bestfriend, not quite outdoors enough right now (should you go out? can you go out?) (No!) Behind you, dependable, red pale dark eyes friendand? (Dave) steel-hidden cool-face ticking sizzling time. And so many _new_ people! Not all human—mostly not human. First, closest, just scratching (so well! we like her!) (yes, Roxy, friend(and?)) is light pink soft purple smile shadows shadows deep—

“No, Bec, come on, stop sniffing Roxy!” You scratch under his chin. “Come on, we have to bring back Tavros.”

You generally start by focusing on the scents, giddy as they make you, because even with years of practice, it’s never easy to hold Bec’s other strongest sense in your mind: everything. Every single thing on the planet, all the way up through the exosphere, all the way down to the smallest quark. You don’t know how he does it, and quite frankly, you have stopped asking. You just use it.

Tavros, human-shaped again—oh good, getting him out of range worked!—is on an ice sheet in the western Arctic Sea, shivering and looking EXTREMELY confused.

(bring him back) (no! bad threat stink keep away!) (wrong, good, scared, friend! Tavros, friend. bring back here – no, bad for him here. bring him back to…hospitalroom here, in building. we need to make sure he’s okayhealthywarm.) ( _no_ hurt pup-mistress-bestfriend) (YES. fetch!)

If dogs could pout, you swear Bec would be pouting right now. But he moves Tavros back to the check-up room, with only a bit more snow than was necessary. (no snow was necessary! bad dog!) (outdooooors)

You glance up at your audience. “I’m sorry, he’s usually much better behaved than this. He’s just prejudiced about Tavros because I was in danger.”

“-witch’ title from this air elemental of John’s,” Dave is explaining to the others. You knew the whole time, with Bec, but you were concentrating on other things (good dave best friendmaybemate) (hey! you are not actually my parent and you need to stop tell me to get a mate!).

Dave turns back to you. “Harley, you’re the only one privy to the cosmutt’s thoughts. Why do you always admit when he’s being a brat?”

“How could I possibly disguise the fact?” He offers you a hand up and you take it, though your sense of balance couldn’t be more perfect right now. (explains stands guard helps unasked…) (knock it off!)

“Yeah, so, Tavros is back now. We sent him to your check-up room, Jane. He might have mild hypothermia, sorry, he was only on the ice for like a minute but it’s not like he was dressed for it…”

“Ice? Where the heck—“ Jane cuts herself off. “Tell me later. I’ll make sure he’s okay, you explain the magitech before these two burst.” She jerks her thumbs at Roxy and Dirk, both standing now, who are indeed looking very curiously at your headband. The emotion is actually visible on Dirk’s face. (dark sharp electricity-eyes predator wary poisonflame-blood) (AR in glasses, smart computer; human Dirk, friend—what is poisonflame-blood?) (bad)

“I can give you a lift?” you offer. “I swear, it doesn’t feel weird. Much.”

Jane (dark-hair pale-skin blue-eyes sun-blue-bright life warm deepstrong _life_ ) (Jane, friend) looks uneasy. “Okay?”

(Bec, move Jane to hospitalroom with Tavros) And there she is.

“She’s there,” you assure everyone.

“Have you been doing that since you were six?” asks Dirk.

“Oh, no, I only invented the headset when I was sixteen,” you say. “It was my first real invention, not just based on the stuff my grandfather left behind.”

Bec’s ears prick up as Nepeta edges around Roxy, hand held out cautiously. Equius has one hand protectively on her shoulder.

(cat! large humanshape _cat_ nervous horsehuman verysweaty ugh catcatcat chase!) ( _Sit_. greet (cat!) friend Nepeta, horsehuman friend Equius)

He sits with a whine and dutifully sniffs Nepeta’s palm, only baring his teeth a tiny bit. She flashes her own fangs, but nobody starts running so you consider it a win.

“It’s just a communicate-with-animals spell,” you explain. “Once I cast it, I swapped batteries for blood for the energy, and routed it through a digital interface to modulate the intensity of the connection.”

Roxy has circled behind you to peer at your ears. “I get the fur,” she says, but wouldn’t it been an even closer connection to put the tech directly on the headband, spanning your head?”

You blush. “I thought it looked nicer this way.”

She grins (nice good fit but can’t have pups with) (I don’t want pupmaking, we’ve been over this—and not with Roxy anyway!)

“Agreed. It’s totally adorable.”

You blush a little harder. (pup-mistress-bestfriend is right no matewant here) (no matewant ever! did Dave teach you how to be sarcastic?) (matewant pupwant not always matelust. If matelust pupmakingable notimportant could have BOTH ‘Dave’ and ‘Roxy’ as mates be REAL pack leader!)

You pull the headband off with a growl. The world snaps back down to the hallway. “Bec, shut _up_ about mates!”

There’s a little green flash and his leash appears around your wrist. He stares at it longingly.

“No, no walk, either! It’s worktime!”

Roxy is grinning at you. Nepeta stares at the two of you with very predatory focus.

Dave has one of his most deliberately deadpan expressions on. “Actually,” he points out, “you might want to walk over to Rose’s office and ‘fess up about your secret supernatural aids before she has to be surprised again.” A small gesture at his own chest and a pointed head tilt at Dirk’s shades with their shining red dots serve as slightly abashed reminder of the Great Escape Attempt fiasco.

Your shoulders slump. “Right.”

Dirk’s shades glow brighter for a moment. “If you want to do that asap, you’d better go now. She has a session with Peixes at 11.”

You could keep talking shop…You shake your head. “I’d rather get that done.”

“Guess we’ll get the full rundown on the dog-ears later, then. I’d like the schematics, if you’ve still got them.” He taps Equius on the flank as he turns to leave. “Come on, kiddos, back to the workroom.”

Equius is the embodiment of self-righteous offense as he twists his torso to glare at Dirk. “I am old enough to be human father,” he says stiffly. “I order you not to refer to me or Miss Leijon with such diminutive terms.”

Dirk doesn’t even turn around.

“C’mon, old man,” says Nepeta, pulling the centaur around. “You didn’t want to leave the workroom in the first place.”

“Ooh, I’m coming with!” says Roxy, bouncing forward. “The SIP didn’t work because the wave got to bouncing around the room. We need to figure out something that will absorb it.” She winks over her shoulder at you. “But then we’re totally plumbing the secrets of your Bec magics!”

“Of course! And I’ve definitely still got the schematics. Tell me if you figure out anything for the pulse.”

“Duh.” She waves goodbye, which is silly because you’ll probably see her in like half an hour. You wave back.

“Do you want me to go with you to Rose?” asks Dave. He’s petting Bec’s head absentmindedly, and your dog is leaning into his touch. “She still likes me, as far as I know.”

You bite your lip. You know it’s not going to be a problem. You’ve already been shown that nobody (probably) is going to think it’s a problem. But…

”Do you mind?”

“Nah, I’m still not busy for like an hour.” He leans over to bump your shoulder with his. “Hey, maybe he can room with you, now. Give Dad Egbert a break.”

Bec’s tail whips excitedly along the floor as you smile. “That’s a great idea!”

Dave shrugs, radiating “no big deal.” But you see the little upturn of his mouth.

“We should visit Tavros first though,” you decide, snapping Bec’s leash onto his collar. He springs to his feet, panting happily. “I feel sorta bad about Bec sending him to the Arctic. It was pretty much our fault he went full-on bovine.”

Dave closes his eyes and breathes in deeply. “You know, I’ve pretty much been a hunter since I was born, and I still like to take a moment every now and then to appreciate how absofuckinglutely _weird_ lines like that are.”

You giggle. “It is, isn’t it?” You shoulder-bump him back and start to walk your dog. “I heard you earlier, ‘She got the ‘witch’ title from an air elemental friend of John’s.”

Dave jumps up and down at your heel, front teeth pushed forward. “’Here, Tavros! Here, boy! Good bull!’”

You laugh and try to elbow him for making fun of you. He dodges.

“And I don’t even know what sort of conversations you have with the mutt,” he continues. “’Danger gone, let’s go for a walk!’ ‘Nooo, we have to bring back the shapeshifter before he freezes his ass off!’”

“Pretty much!” And a lot of stuff about mates and puppies which you are _very_ glad he isn’t mentioning, even though everyone heard you shout about it.

Bec pulls on his leash and you don’t need your witchy headband to tell he wants to go faster. He knows the way to Rose’s office, of course, but there are so many new things to smell on the way!

You wonder if everyone’s guardians are this much trouble. You sort of suspect they aren’t.

You hope Rose lets him stay. Bec sleeping on the end of your bed as usual is the last piece that would make your time at Project: SSCAIA really perfect.


End file.
